you've got her hanging by a heartstring
by thewildthingsarecoming
Summary: -it's not giving up, it's getting smart - MollyLysander.


Disclaimer: Yeah, you know, the usual.

_boy, you've got her hanging by a heartstring._

Act 1

I

Molly's never been a _i'm-going-to-show-you-exactly-how-much-i-care _sort of girl, because having your heart on your sleeve, is a sure-fire way to get it s h a t t e r e d into a billion tiny glittering pieces, and opening your soul like a storybook in a library is a definitive method of leaving yourself wide open for attack.

II

Because sure, she's fucking insecure (name a teenage girl that isn't) and she hides behind her _searing_ sarcasm because it's easier to be hated for who you pretend to be then who you actually are, but if she falls (and fall she does, she is human after-all) she does it with her entire being which is why love for her is always agony.

III

She hides her vulnerability behind books and reason and retorts that are so cruel they'll make your hair curl, and every time they call her mean or a bully, a little piece of her timid silver light fades to black, but she's okay because it's not her they hate, it's the part that she's playing and she can cope with _that_ (onlyeverthat).

IV

When she meets Lysander (she's in the process of gluing together her heart when she does) she thinks to herself, that he's nice and safe and that he won't break her (like the china doll that she fiercely pretends she's not) and over time she starts to trust him more and more.

V

She laughs more easily with him then she would ever have believed possible, and in return he's more patient with her then she can ever remember anyone being (she grew up with Percy for a father and a mother so enthralled by her other picture-perfect daughter - and let's face it, she never stood a chance) and the times they spend together quickly become the highlights of her entire life.

VI

She realises that she could love him (like so much she could spontaneously combust whenever he's near) when they're almost at the end of sixth year (and yes, she hasn't known him that long, but it's been long enough, so she starts spending her time thinking how marvellous he is when he smiles and how he keeps her so grounded it hurts (but not in that broken hearted kind of way).

VII

It takes exactly six months before she plucks up the courage to tell him sort of exactly how she feels, and he and his brother (who of course happens to be there) just look at her like she's crazy (and maybe she really _truly_ is) and for that single day, she's play-pretending that she's brave, and it's enough.

VIII

She gives him days to consider what she's offering because a heart, even if it's slightly marred by tape and glue, is still important (even hers right?), but as time passes by, she can feel the cracks pulling ever so slightly and she realises that maybe the kind of love that she's after (like perfect, flawless, kissing in the rain sort of love) really is just the stuff of fairytales, and that she needs to grow up whilst she can, because living for impossible dreams that will neverevernever happen just isn't the future that she's after.

IX

When you think about it (like actually, stop and sit and think), she reasons, it's not giving up, it's getting smart, because she can't spend the rest of her everydays waiting on a boy who won't love her back (that's just no way to live).

X

She's moreorless told him how she feels and he's let it lie, and heartbreak is just so passé these days, so she'll smash her heart herself, and instead of picking up the pieces, she'll leave them at his feet, glowing with their silver light, and set about building herself a new one, that's brighter and better and entwined with all of the lessons she should have already known, that shines golden like the sun. And because she's learning from her mistakes, she quirks the corners of her lips up and smiles through life, because if you smile people ask fewer questions, and she should care (but she doesn't) because in shades of indifference is a flawless way to live (right?) and life, well it can only get better (yeah?) so she draws the f a c a d e tighter than ever before and dances through life because it's _oh-so-_much easier than taking a risk, because those so often end in agony, and she's had enough of that (for now).

XI

The day after the first day back after summer, she sees him again for the first time since she _grew-up_, and his face pulls into this shocked sort of 'oh' because she's suddenly turned into everything she said she would never be. From the curl of her (now) perfectly coifed hair to the way that her hips swing _just so _when she walks by in her highhigh heels and shortshort skirt and she smiles at him so brightly it's like he's been thrown into the sun, because the way she sees it, if she draws attention people will care less about what's going on behind her prettypretty face, like the tears and the pain and the heartache, and that way, everybody (and she means **everybody**) wins.

Act 2

XII

He corners her one day after lessons when she's flirting with a group of Ravenclaws (who just so happen to be hanging onto her every words) and pulls her to a benches and forces her to sit and listen, and he's alright (no really), right up until the point where's he's about to start talking because that's when she looks coyly up at him from underneath her darklongdark lashes with those sparkling, star-bright eyes of hers, and he almost breaks then and there.

XIII

"Why Molls? Just why?" and that's all he can bring himself to say because this isn't h i s Molly anymore, she hasn't been for so long now.

Her shiny eyes harden ever-so-slightly, but she laughs lightly and flicks her hair and smiles brightly "Because I grew up Lysander and I learned my lesson," (and it's Lysander, not Ly and that hurts).

"You're not what growing up looks like Molly," he tells her quietly, "you're what little girls play-acting brave look like."

"Don't pretend you know anything Lysander, because you don't," she hisses fiercely, and the cool is slipping from her grasp because her eyes are blazing.

"Then explain it to me," he shouts in frustration because he doesn't _know_ what else to say to make her see sense, "What happened to the girl who loves words and music and fairytales?"

"I told you," she cries, "she grew up, because she realised that words don't save you when you're broken, and music doesn't fix everything like it's supposed to, and fairytales. Fairytales don't exist. There are no happy endings, or once upon a fucking times and when you live that's it. You live and you hurt and you die, and it's shit. But that's what you get. There's no real magic or happiness or anything. It's all just pretend because that's what life is. A mess of lies that people tell to make themselves feel better because they can't accept the truth."

XIV

There are tears clinging to her cheeks like rings to Saturn, and she's pale-faced and devastated (and he thinks she's never looked more beautiful – but that's beside the point) and because he never expected her to say anything so honest he's silent, because she's shocked the words from his lips.

XV

It takes all of two seconds for her to see his absence of an answer, and then she's rushing past him like a shooting star and all he's left with is her voice ringing through his ears and her outer space smell clinging to the very air he's breathing.

XVI

Lysander sees her in the corridors later that day, and her smile is back in place and her eyes are glowing like never before and she's laughing so magically at the jokes of some Hufflepuff (that he's never really cared for), and when she passes him he's never seen such perfect indifference in anyone's face before.

XVII

It hit's him like a bullet to the chest then (and it kind of, sort of kills).

XVIII

He's lost her, because he took too long deciding what is was that he wanted and he is the lesson that she learned like so many other little girls before her (that there are safer things to do then trust your oh-so-fragile heart with some foolish little boy who'll never love you like you will him), and as he watches her walk away, he sees all of the glorious futures that he never realised that he wanted until then, fade to nothing but once-upon-a-time's.

XVIII

Then there's nothing left but irony (plain and simple), and it's like someone, somewhere is laughing at him because she's become to him the very thing that she no longer believes in, a fairytale.

_fin._


End file.
